The Bright Colors of Fall in Southern Oregon

Recently built a few years ago to replace a bridge lost to a rapid flood on New Year's Day in 1997.

Some pictures from a recent visit I took to Lithia Park in Ashland.

Coastal Rambles in Oregon--Coos Bay, Charleston, Bandon, and Cape Blanco

Lighthouses are one of the main attractions of the Oregon Coast.

Here's some recent photos from a trip we took to the southern Oregon Coast.



"Coos-Bay ,along with the town of North Bend, forms the largest urban area along the Oregon Coast. Just to the west of Coos Bay is the town of Charleston, which is an old waterfront-fishing village. Together, the three cities from Oregon's "Bay Area." With three beautiful state parks and three golf courses, a wide variety of recreation is offered to visitors at Coos Bay. Sunset Bay State Park offers swimming in it's small, picturesque, protected bay. This is unusual on the Oregon Coast - where most beaches are too rough and rugged for swimming."

My Trip to Mount Ashland: Operation Excelsior!

The mountain itself stands 7,500 feet high. It is the biggest mountain between the smaller coast ranges its West and the mighty Cascade Range east of the Rouge Valley.

This week I took a daytime trip, camera in hand, up the winding roads of Mount Ashland, to capture some of nature and the lovely vistas here in this part of the Pacific Northwest.

Global Warming and the Politics of Denial (Video from National Geographic)

This issue is one of the most divisive in the Western World. In the United States, many more people who used to accept that global warming is happening no longer believe it. Even when reputable institutions like NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) put out evidence recently that this is a problem, still many people more seem to flock to the more comforting idea that mankind is just a simple creature unable to have a long-term effect on the planet.

That is why climate-warming deniers always cling to any shreds of a hacked e-mail or a scientist or a celebrity who tells us that our industrial economy doesn't come with a nasty effect on the atmosphere of the planet. The facts are that hundreds of climate scientists say that the earth is getting warmer, period, and have been saying so for years.

I believe human beings do have the power to change our climate--and all the name-calling I've read on websites researching this topic tells it is so hopelessly politicized (at least in the USA, where one-quarter of the greenhouse-effect emissions come from) that it will be a long time before we realize how fragile this planet is and how American and Chinese and European lifestyles are making this planet warmer.

It was all put together quite well for me in a recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times (from July 22) . I include a portion of this editorial because I feel this gets to the heart of the state of denial too many Americans are trapped in by misleading punditry and conspiracy theories that aim to do nothing but pretend the forests aren't dying, the masses of plankton and coral reefs aren't diminishing and the world isn't getting hotter.



"You probably won't hear it from columnist George F. Will, Fox News commentators or the plethora of conservative blogs that have claimed global warming essentially stopped in 1998, but recent figures released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that global land and ocean surface temperatures in June were the highest since record-keeping began in 1880. What's more, the first half of 2010 was the hottest such period ever recorded, and Arctic sea ice melted at a record-setting pace in June.

"The heat can probably be attributed at least in part to periodic and entirely natural changes in ocean temperatures and surface air pressure — the El Niño/La Niña phenomena most likely played a role. But the fact that peak years are getting hotter while even relatively "cool" years now tend to remain above historical averages (the 10 warmest years on record all occurred within the last 15 years, according to the NOAA) shows that something else is at work. A consensus of climate scientists worldwide, including not only the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change but the national scientific academies of the United States and the rest of the developed world, have identified that "something else" as anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gases, which reflect the sun's heat back onto the Earth rather than letting it escape into space."


Sometimes an "inconvenient truth" is just that.

Along Highway 101--Oregon and California Beaches and Towns

Here's a family taking a few pictures on beach near Coos Bay, Oregon. The area is known for its large sanddunes and unspoiled terrain.

A few shots of some Pacific landscapes and assorted near-by towns that I took last month on seperate trips in Oregon and Northern California.

"Ave mundi spes Maria"/ from "Chant" (1994) /Bendictine Monks of Santo Domingo De Solis

from the spiritsite website on the Gregorian Chant featured here:
www.spiritsite.com

"The Monks of St. Domingo De Silos sprung onto the music scene with some very, very old tunes in 1994. By 1995, their album Chant had sold over 5 million copies.

"The album, and its follow-ups, are unadulterated Gregorian chant -- simple religious compositions dating back to the 11th century.

"As Rolling Stone magazine wrote, "The no-frills recording of Spanish monks captures with perfect clarity the intensity and intimacy of this form of prayer. Modest, unison singing--no tricks, no virtuosity--the chanting comes from the heart, unself-conscious and nakedly direct..."

"The monks of St. Domingo De Silos, apparently overwhelmed by the unexpected success of their music, requested that journalists leave them alone. Alas, this was a difficult proposal. The monks eventually acquiesced to the will of the people and released several popular follow-up albums."


Ave mundi spes Maria - English

Hail, hope of the world, Mary, hail, meek one, hail, loving one, hail, full of grace
Hail O singular virgin, who wast chosen to not suffer flames through brambles
Hail, beautiful rose, hail, staff of Jesse:
Whose fruit loosened the chains of our weeping
Hail whose womb bore a son against the law of death
Hail, O one lacking comparison, still tearfully renewing joy for the world
Hail, lamp of virgins, through whom the heavenly light shone on these whom shadow holds.
Hail, O virgin from whom a thing of heaven wished to be born, and from whose milk feed.
Hail, gem of the lamps of heaven
Hail, sanctuary of the Holy Ghost
O, how wonderful, and how praiseworthy is this virginity!
In whom, made through the spirit, the paraclete, shone fruitfulness.
O how holy, how serene, how kind, how pleasant the virgin is believed to be!
Through whom slavery is finished, a place of heaven is opened, and liberty is returned.
O, lily of chastity, pray to thy son, who is the salvation of the humble:
Lest we through our fault, in the tearful judgment suffer punishment.
But may she, by her holy prayer, purifying from the dregs of sin, place us in a home of light
Amen let every man say.

Survival: Bear Quintuplet Story

I received an e-mail on this and wanted to share this man's incredible fortune to witness a great example of nature abiding even the midst of often unwarranted human intrusions.  If you have trouble seeing the pictures on your computer, here is a direct link to the photographer (Tom Sears) site.  http://www.digitalphotographics.us/bearsandme1.html Something we`ll probably not see again in our lifetime...    Black bears typically have two cubs; rarely, one or three. In 2007, in northern  New Hampshire, a black bear Sow gave birth to five healthy young. There were two or three reports of sows with as many as four cubs, but five was, and is, extraordinary. I learned of them shortly after they emerged from their den and set myself a goal of photographing all five cubs with their mom - no matter how much time and effort was involved. I knew the trail they followed on a fairly regular basis, usually shortly before dark. After spending nearly four hours a day, seven days a week, for six weeks, I had that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and photographed them. I used the equivalent of a very fast film speed on my digital camera. The print is properly focused and well exposed, with all six bears posing as if they were in a studio for a family portrait.        (Read on..) I stayed in touch with other people who saw the bears during the summer and into the fall hunting season. All six bears continued to thrive. As time for hibernation approached, I found still more folks who had seen them, and everything remained OK. I stayed away from the bears as I was concerned that they might become habituated to me, or to peo ple in general, as approachable friends.  This could be dangerous for both man and animal.  After Halloween I received no further reports and could only hope the bears survived until they hibernated.  This spring, before the snow disappeared, all six bears came out of their den and wandered the same familiar territory they trekked in the spring of 2007.  I saw them before mid-April and dreamed nightly of taking another family portrait, an improbable second once-in-a-lifetime photograph. On April 25, 2008 I achieved my dream.   When something as magical as this happens between man and animal, Native Americans say, 'We have walked together in the shadow of a rainbow.'  And so it is with humility and great pleasure that I share these photos with you.  Sincerely, Tom Sears